It was two years ago when Dongwoon met Kikwang in one of the underage clubs in London.

Dongwoon was not into clubs or parties, had never been. A scene he was unfamiliar and uncomfortable with, although he could obviously get a head start with Hyunseung and Doojoon as his best friends – his hyungs. 


However he tried to look at it, Dongwoon always found it messy and totally out of control. Bodies smashing, sweat dripping, limbs tangling, a concoction of chaos and disorder. He had enough of them in his everyday life, and why would he find the same scene as entertainment, he always wondered.


Dongwoon’s father owned the successful crime scene cleanup companies and Dongwoon had accidentally stumbled into one of the scenes when he was young. It was messy, very messy. Bodies sprawling, blood oozing, limbs overlapping, a mixture of catastrophe and inhumanity. He was quickly swooped up and removed from the scene but the picture stayed. It always had.


This was why cleaning up Doojoon’s mess at the dilapidated apartment was not even a quarter as bad as those he had experience since he learned about the business. 


But he was eternally grateful to his hyungs when they dragged him against his own will to the club in London. The three were on a holiday and decided it would be so much fun to witness clubbing scenes in other countries – and Hyunseung could use this experience and apply it as a British Tuesday or something for his own club – and of course to torture the maknae just because he was the maknae and the hyungs felt like it.


It was different from those parties at Hyunseung’s club, which were much more decadent in all sense of words. Right here, teenagers flooded the club, too-young girls flashing their underdeveloped assets, too-young boys stuttering out overused pick up lines, hip hop songs blaring from the enormous speakers and sound system, the bar was ridiculously congested, drinks flowing endlessly. 


And in the middle of the bar, Dongwoon saw him. 


Maybe a year older, with brown hair and a focused expression on his face. He was taking out bottles, pouring them out, mixing drinks for the crowd, and he always served the drinks with an eye smile that was more intoxicating than the drink itself.


“Hyung, I’m thirsty after all the dragging. I’m gonna head to the bar.” Dongwoon said. 


Hyunseung stared pass through Dongwoon’s shoulder to see the overcrowded bar. He raised an eyebrow, “You are buying from the bar? Dongwoonah, I have reserved a table and we can order drinks there.” Hyunseung chuckled lightly.


Dongwoon did not budge from his decision, “Let me mingle with these erm.. boys and girls. I am taking in the atmosphere, hyung.” 


“Fine, we’ll be right over there,” Hyunseung pointed to an empty table across the dance floor, a premium spot, “and you’d better be there in one piece.” Hyunseung gave him a worried look, considering the bar Dongwoon was heading to.


Dongwoon dismissed him with a quick “yeah, yeah” before making his way to the bar and pushed his way through so that he was face to face with the bartender. 


“I will get whatever you recommend me,” Dongwoon shouted at him, trying to be heard over the loud songs playing. 


The bartender looked up at him and smiled, “Sure.”


Dongwoon frowned his eyebrows in confusion and let out a hearty laugh when he was served a glass of cold orange juice, with ice cubes and a small straw. The bartender grinned at him, eyes smiling, and he took out a hand, “Kikwang.” Dongwoon shook his hand, sensing it was the right fit for his own hold, “Dongwoon.” 


They immediately became comfortable with one another and started meeting in London. Turned out, Kikwang was visiting a friend – the one who co-owned the club – and that night he was helping his friend because he was short of a bartender. 


Dongwoon returned home to Seoul earlier and Kikwang followed a week after. They met up more often and Dongwoon introduced him to Hyunseung. Immediately, Kikwang was moving around nimbly behind the bar counter mixing drinks for Hyunseung’s customers. 


They were dating each other, they met up more often, and had been together longer than Doojoon's search for anyone who could stand him for 2 days. Yet Dongwoon wondered how long this would last. With Kikwang being constantly exposed to flirty, thirsty population of the city, Dongwoon wondered when he would catch Kikwang’s hand down others’ pants. He had seen one too many examples of this – his hyungs, as amazing and awesome as they were, sadly fidelity was not part of their personality – and Dongwoon was just honestly downright insecure. 


He could do nothing other than wait, waiting for the moment it happened.

And he really should sleep now because tomorrow was a school day.